Acoustics

A good recording begins with a good-sounding space. The tracking rooms at Studio 13 have all been designed and built for acoustic excellence, with appropriate acoustic treatments to control reflections and room sound. Our control room is also designed to provide an accurate mixing environment so that the final mixes made here will sound good wherever they are played.

Microphones

Over the years we have built up a collection of excellent microphones — dynamic microphones, condenser microphones (both tube and solid state) and ribbon microphones.  Our microphones come from all around the world and include products made by Neumann, Audio Technica, AKG, Advanced Audio, Rode, Shure, DPA and other leading manufacturers.  Whatever you want to record, we will have first class microphones suited to the need.

We also have some very nice DI boxes made by Radial Engineering, L.R.Baggs and A.R.T. for use with keyboards and instrument pickups.

Recording Hardware

Good acoustics and good microphones will provide the best results when they are combined with world class recording hardware.  We use classic pre-amps, compressors, sound modules and effects units (solid state and tube) made by Millennia Media, Harrison Consoles, TLA, Peavey, Summit Audio, dBx, Focusrite, Presonus, A.R.T., Roland, Korg and more. Our SSL Alpha Link recording interface allows us to record up to 24 tracks of audio at one time and provides us with high quality analog\digital converters to feed our digital recording software.

Recording Software

While we have a 24-track analog mixing board, which is useful for monitoring and signal routing, most of our recording, editing, mixing and mastering is done in a dedicated audio computer using software that emulates the recording hardware that was used in days gone by.  We use industry standard multi-track recording software with high end plug-ins from developers such as Waves, Izotope, Sony and many others.

And More

Most of our recording clients prefer to bring their own instruments into the studio for recording purposes.  However we can also help by providing the use of our vintage Gretsch drum kit, vintage Hammond organ, a Yamaha electric piano, various acoustic and electric guitars, a great collection of bass guitars and a variety of guitar and bass amplifiers.

While our main focus has been recording audio from analog sources such as voice and musical instruments, we also have the ability to record MIDI instruments, and we have some really nice acoustic piano samples to use with recorded MIDI tracks.  This gives us the benefit of having real piano sounds without the tuning and maintenance issues that come with traditional pianos.

Studio 13 also has two multi-track digital field recorders that provide a mobile recording capability that we can bring to your location, allowing us to record up to 24 tracks of audio at one time.  This allows us to record live events such as concerts, and also to record groups such as choirs and orchestras that are too large for the studio.